


Dramatic Night Vale Mini-Drabbles

by valda



Series: Short Stuff [5]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-03-29 15:24:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 41
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3901288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valda/pseuds/valda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>These drama/action ficlets were mostly written in response to Tumblr prompts. They deal with more serious subjects. Some of them involve upsetting subjects such as violence and abuse, and I've tried to indicate triggers in the Notes before each fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Taken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. jathis asked: Earl's eyes widened as a man who was not short threw a bag over Carlos' head and he shouted out in anger.

It would be a simple matter to subdue the man. Earl was diving forward when sudden motion in his periphery forced him to duck and roll. A man who was not tall stumbled over Earl’s crouched form, momentum sending him crashing into Carlos’ lab desk. Leaping back to his feet, Earl made sure the man was down, then whipped his head back toward the other man…but the man who was not short was gone. With Carlos. Carlos was gone.


	2. All My Fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. marshmellowtea asked: His head was drooping, and guilt swelled up in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Triggers: self-blame.

He’d done it now. He’d blown up one too many times. He’d fucked everything up and this was the end and things would never be right again…

“I’m not upset,” Carlos said, his voice tinny, staticky over the infinite distance between them. “But…I’ll call you back later.”


	3. The Replacements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. generalcupcakery asked: "Everything is fine; how are you?"

“Fine.”

The silence settled between them, thick as fog. A dark car with tinted windows turned into the parking lot, its headlights sweeping through the window and across their table, and one of the men, the one who was not tall, flinched, but only slightly. The man who was not short was impassive, and neither of them said another word.


	4. Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. jathis asked: "I think I may have made a mistake."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Triggers: implied gore/blood, eye horror

He couldn’t stop smiling.

His eyes felt as if tens of thousands of needles were pricking them all at once; fluid was building up at the corners and rolling down his face and he didn’t think it was tears.

“I think I may have--”

His voice caught in his throat.

He swallowed, blinked against the hot liquid in his eyes, and leaned toward the microphone.


	5. Tempting Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. longhairshortfuse asked: A normal crowd would have shuffled and grumbled, but this one was silent.

It was also efficient; the bloodstone circle was assembled and replenished in moments, glowing red under the pale sliver of the moon, and the crowd gathered within it and around it and beyond it, raising their arms and gesturing and dancing in wordless unison.

The silence was complete, such that several times Carlos wondered if he’d lost his hearing. He dared not make any sounds of his own to find out.

 _Do not look at the hooded figures_ , Cecil always said. But Carlos had a bad habit of not listening to Cecil.


	6. A Mother's Exhaustion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. everybodyhatesanderson asked: It was a high school party, and she couldn't find her keys

The worst thing about high school parties was that they were full of kids. High school kids. Kids like Josh.

Diane sighed. She loved Josh, Josh was her world, but a hundred of him was a little much, and she just wanted to go home to her spreadsheets.


	7. In and Out of Synch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. everybodyhatesanderson asked: And in that moment, he knew he wanted to kiss her, and she wanted a sandwich.

And she knew he wanted to kiss her, and he knew she wanted a sandwich, because the electrical storm had given everyone in Night Vale temporary psychic abilities. (At least, the scientists said they _hoped_ the psychic abilities were temporary, but then again, scientists were comedians.)

“Well, this is awkward,” Wilson said.

Amber sighed. It was their breakup all over again.


	8. Transference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. everybodyhatesanderson asked: "I shouldn't do this." She said as she kissed her.

Maureen put her hands on Michelle’s shoulders, pushed her gently away. “If you shouldn’t do it,” she said, “then don’t.”

For a moment Michelle looked angry, and then there was a flicker of something else, something soft, before her face shifted back to its usual expression: expressionless.

“You can still see him,” Maureen said quietly, “even if you can’t be with him.”

Michelle rolled her eyes and puffed, “It’s _so great_ , being immune to positive feedback.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I don't know if it's obvious, but "he" is Intern Richard)


	9. Too Much

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. everybodyhatesanderson asked: Looking up at the sky, he instantly knew he was going to puke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Triggers: existential terror, vomit

It was _so vast_ and there was _so much void_. There was _too much void_.

Cecil clutched at his mouth, retching against his hand.

This was unacceptable--he was the voice of the community, he should be unflappable, he had a reputation, he had a _responsibility--_ but sometimes it was just too much.

It was too much, and he fell to his hands and knees, and because he was Cecil, because whatever he was feeling always found its way out of his mouth, he threw up, violently.


	10. Oblivious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. longhairshortfuse asked: "Hey, I found five bucks! Whatcha wanna do?"

Earl looked positively giddy, which summoned a small, reluctant smile to Cecil’s lips. “Not much we can do with five bucks,” the 15-year-old commented, plucking the bill from Earl’s fingers and gazing at it broodingly.

“It’s enough for a root beer float,” Earl said.

“Yeah, but just one--but hey, I could share it with that new kid, you know, the cute one?” Cecil grinned; Earl was great, always giving Cecil ideas for ways to cheer himself up.


	11. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. longhairshortfuse asked: Roger pulled at Earl's sleeve. "Da-a-ad, why do I call him Uncle Cecil when he's not your brother?"

He didn’t want to answer this question yet. Things weren’t _right_ with Cecil yet. He needed more time.

“I’ll…tell you when you’re older,” Earl said, lamely.


	12. A Teachable Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. jathis asked: "Why is hopscotch so deadly?"

Earl crouched to offer Roger a hand up. “Well, it’s a ritual,” he said. “All rituals are deadly.”

He didn’t know if Roger understood.

He didn’t know much of anything, really.


	13. Obsession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. rope-halter asked: "Sometimes the things we lose aren't lost forever."

“But sometimes they _are_.”

Earl splayed rough, deft fingers across the lip of his glass and raised it, sloshing the amber liquid gently.

“Sometimes you can’t hold on. Sometimes you have to let go.”

“…it doesn’t sound like you believe that.”


	14. Something Else Lives There Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. everybodyhatesanderson asked: He wanted to find her the perfect holiday gift, to tell his best friend how much, and how long, he'd had a crush on her

Of course, materialism had been banned–-recently, was it? No, _long ago_ -–so something store-bought wouldn’t do, and anyway that wouldn’t be personal enough.

And so he made preparations, he worked late into the night, night after night, _every_ night, until he was ready, and then he put on the robe, and arranged the candles, and raised the amulet, and said the words.

He’d done so much, he’d done _everything_ , he’d worked _so hard_ –-but in the horrifying, gut-wrenching end, it was all for nothing. She didn’t like it.

She didn’t like it _at all_.


	15. Some Things Change, Others Stay the Same

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. jathis asked: "Cecil, my name is Earl now."

“…was your identity reassigned by City Council?”

“No,” Earl huffed. “I mean, I’m a boy.”

Cecil blinked, frowned, blinked again. “Yeah, and?”


	16. Indoctrination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. therealraewest asked: As it turns out, some laws are there for a reason, including the one she just broke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Triggers: invisible monsters

The room is dark, and there is a rustling all around, an invisible, unnerving rustling. Her mouth opens in a silent scream as _something_ brushes against her, slowly, lazily, unseen. And then there are more somethings, and more somethings, until she is being buffeted on all sides by the unknowable--and it is somehow familiar, like a door opening slowly in her mind.

It lasts for _minutes? hours? days? centuries?_ and when it is over there are ivory rings on her fingers and a cerulean cape is billowing behind her and she knows, she _knows_ what she hadn’t known before and that she must make amends _immediately_.

She feels hollow, dead, _done_ , but her voice is strong and sure as she tells the gathered crowd, “Dogs are not allowed in the dog park.”


	17. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. therealraewest asked: "I knew I'd find you here."

Old Woman Josie dropped her personalized, custom-made bowling bag onto the bench next to Cecil, then sat down herself with a tired but contented sigh.

Cecil didn’t look at her; his gaze was fixed on the Arby’s sign in the distance.

“Don’t mean to be a bother,” Josie said after a moment, “but Erika, Erika, and I still need a ride home.”

“Oh,” Cecil said, “right. Right.”


	18. Star-Crossed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. the-nightvale-crew asked: As he walked through the front door for the first time in what seemed like forever, he knew life would never be the same.

He was home, finally, after so, so long. But as his eyes took in the empty room, and he heard nothing, no clinking of coffeepot against mug, no feverish typing, no cheerful, indulgent greeting thrumming through the house in a voice made of honey, he knew he wasn’t _really_ home.

His bag slipped unheeded from his shoulder to the floor. “Home” was Cecil.

And Cecil was gone.


	19. So, So Bright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. therealraewest asked: It had never been like this before.

Things had always been a certain way, and now they were _not_ that way, and Alisha was scared. Doug was scared too, and so was tiny scientist. Everyone was scared.

But then there was a brilliant light, and at first it hurt so much it erased the fear, and then the pain was gone too, or maybe it became normal, became expected--but regardless, somehow, everything was fine.

They were all smiling.


	20. No Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the [kiss meme](http://cosleia.tumblr.com/post/118356362613/send-me-a-number-and-a-pairing-and-ill-do-a). jathis asked: Marcus/Jake: 11 (“I almost lost you” kiss)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Triggers: violence, emotional abuse, sexual abuse

He heard the limousine overtaking him only seconds before it whipped past and screeched to a stop on the shoulder, headlights casting dour yellow light across the blackened desert. Jake glanced back reflexively, helplessly; he’d only made it a few yards from his stalled car, and part of him wanted to turn and run back to it.

The rest of him knew that would more harm than good, and he remained still.

Marcus flung himself from the backseat of the stretch limo, stalking up to Jake and slapping him hard across the face.

“Never scare me like that again,” he said in a familiar, tremulous voice, a voice that had, once upon a time, seemed sweet, vulnerable.

Jake knew he should not react, but he could not force down the shuddering. It started in his shoulders and soon spread to his entire body. He watched Marcus, eyes wide, shaking.

Marcus wrapped his thick arms around Jake, pulling him tightly into the stale smell of wine and cigars and money. “Shh,” said the most singular citizen of Night Vale. “It’s all right.” And he caught Jake by the back of the head, mashed their mouths together, and forced his tongue between Jake’s lips.


	21. Always Be Prepared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. jathis asked: "If you want my son then you'll have to kill me for him."

Earl’s bowie knife was strapped to his thigh, easily within reach, and his switchblade was in his front shirt pocket, and his Swiss Army knife was in his back jeans pocket, and of course there were his boot knives, and he also happened to be holding a bloody meat cleaver.

It was a pitiful amount of weaponry. Earl wondered when he’d gotten so sloppy. He could have at _least_ slung the rifle over his shoulder on his way out this morning; after all, it had been _right there_.

As the nondescript man in the suit and sunglasses advanced on him and Roger, though, Earl knew he’d just have to make do with what he had.


	22. She's Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. doctorcrocker asked: "Can you PLEASE not ask if she's dead at her FUNERAL?"

“She’s never _actually_ dead though.”

“Michelle, for Spire’s sake, listen. She is absolutely, one hundred percent dead, and you are being a _real jerk._ “

Sudden screaming broke out from the front of the room as a yawning, blinking Maureen sat up in her casket, stretching her arms out over her head and turning baleful, irritated eyes toward her mourners.

Michelle smirked and said, “Told ya.”


	23. The Future Is the Worst of All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. doctor-sherly asked: “Let’s see where we are in the future."

It was a meaningless Lee Marvin quote, something people said when they didn’t want to say what they really meant, which was, “This isn’t working out.” The future--as if there even was such a thing.

Diane didn’t know what she’d expected, or even if she’d expected anything at all. “All right,” she said, and she hung up the phone. Josh would be home soon, and she needed to start dinner.


	24. Harm Is a Guarantee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. jathis asked: "No one will ever hurt you again."

Earl, who’d been on his way back to the kitchen, paused in Roger’s doorway to ask, “Who are you talking to?”

“It wasn’t me, it was Bambi,” Roger said, gesturing to the pile of dolls in his lap. “He’s going to protect everyone from now on, just like you do.”

“Listen, Roger,” Earl said, fighting back a frown, “that’s not a promise anyone can possibly keep.” He crossed the room to kneel next to his son, placing a hesitant hand on his shoulder, and added quietly, “Not even me.”


	25. The Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Five-Sentence Ficlet meme. rhiannon-langley asked: The child's happy squealing echoed through the halls of the once quiet home.

“I still can’t believe it,” Tak said, tears smarting at her eyes. “We--we finally--”

Herschel returned his wife’s smile, his own eyes glistening. “I know,” he said, turning his happy gaze down to the adult man’s hand lying in the crib between them. “After all those years of trying, so many years, maybe decades--we finally have our baby.”


	26. Distance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the [word meme](http://cosleia.tumblr.com/post/118045298623/peekbelowthesurface-send-me-a-number-and-two). generalcupcakery asked: #85, Cecil and Dana, "Spiral"

"Are you screening my calls? You never answer, no matter what time of day it is. And you never call back. I've told you, _it's not me_. Why can't you just _believe me_?"

Dana flung herself out of her chair and began stalking in circles, grip tightening around her phone.

"Okay, you know what?" she huffed, a small tremor in her voice. "I'm _thankful_ for this. There are things you don't know, Cecil. Things you can't know. Things I can't tell you. Night Vale _needs_ me. So no matter _how_ it's happening, I'm _glad_ you're protecting me. I just wish, you know, that as my _friend_ , you were doing it of your own _free will_ , but _whatever_ , that's cool. Good to know what our friendship means to you, that you care _so much_ about me that some unknown person has to _force_ you to help me. That's really _great_."

Dana stabbed at the "end call" button on her phone screen. For approximately one and a half seconds she stared at her phone, at the photo of Cecil and herself in the recording booth that served as his contact picture. Then she closed her eyes, let out a long breath, opened her eyes again, and tapped into her favorites. Steeling herself, she selected the contact at the top of the list.

"Hi, it's Mayor Cardinal," she said when the line picked up. "Sorry, I'm going to need you to delete the voice message I just left for Cecil Palmer."

" _Again_?" came an annoyed voice.

"Yes," Dana gritted, staring out the window at the blinking red light of the radio tower, so close by, yet so distant. " _Again_."


	27. Safety First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for the [word meme](http://cosleia.tumblr.com/post/118045298623/peekbelowthesurface-send-me-a-number-and-two). generalcupcakery asked: Dana, Pamela, and #97 "Safety First"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No content warnings for this one.

"Damn it," Pamela hissed, "it's not working."

"What's not working?"

 _Shit_.

As Dana slipped into her office, Pamela did _not_ immediately shove the paper behind her back or into a folder. She was a career politician. She knew how to hide things. Plain sight was best. Plain sight, no sudden movements, no guilty looks.

"I'm trying to come up with a good intro for my next emergency press conference," she said smoothly, allowing herself to scowl a little, "but it's just not coming together."

"Will there be one today?" Dana asked, glancing nervously over her shoulder.

"Yes," Pamela said, "I think that would be best. Maybe something on the order of one of my retirement press conferences."

"That bad, huh?"

Pamela's scowl shifted to a rueful smirk. "Well, we can't count on any extra help this time, can we?"

"I wish we didn't have to rely on him at _all_ ," Dana said quietly, crossing her arms. "But...I don't see how I would have survived all this time without him."

Pamela nodded. "You have to take the help you can get, when you're mayor of Night Vale," she said.

"But I don't have to like it."

"But you don't have to like it," Pamela agreed.

Dana took a deep breath, then let out a sigh that sounded so very, very young. "Well, I guess we'd better go," she said.

"Don't forget the mayoral bloodstone."

When Dana turned her attention to the shelf in the corner, Pamela slipped the scrap of paper into her pocket.


	28. Blabbermouth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cecil finally calls Carlos after all those voicemails.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a tiny fix-it I wrote to make myself feel better about Carlos calling Cecil a "blabbermouth." We don’t know if Cecil called Carlos back between any of those voicemails; this assumes he didn’t. Also, remember Cecil is suffering from depression.

“Hey babe!”

“Hi, Carlos.”

“I’m so glad you called back! Sorry for leaving all those messages, I just got so excited!”

“I—I know. And I’m excited too, I really am. But…”

“Ceec? Are you okay?”

“Just…something you said. It’s no big deal. But. Um. You—you called me a ‘blabbermouth’.”

“…oh. Was that—was that bad?”

“Carlos, I’m a reporter. A journalist. I report the news for a living. It’s—it’s what I do, it’s what I’ve always done. I just—you said—it upsets you? It’s annoying?”

“Well, you know. Privacy is already hard enough to get in Night Vale…”

“I see.”

“But that isn’t what I said, though! I said it _would_ upset me, if that wasn’t just who you are.”

“So you’re just, like, _forced_ to not be upset. Because you’re stuck with me.”

“No!” Carlos was quiet for a moment. “I…I was just, you know, thinking. It’s—”

“Part of being a scientist,” Cecil finished dryly.

“I _love_ you, Cecil. I love you. I never want to hurt you.”

Cecil sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.”

Carlos made that cute snuffling noise he sometimes made. “So…I mean…are we okay? Because…you can visit now, we can finally see each other again.”

“Yeah,” Cecil said. “We’re okay. Just…I don’t like 'blabbermouth,’ can you just—”

“I’ll never say it again,” Carlos promised.

Cecil still felt a little…disgruntled, but it would surely pass quickly. After all, soon he would get to see Carlos in person. And that would make everything better.

Wouldn’t it?


	29. Violet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written in response to [a Tumblr post](http://cosleia.tumblr.com/post/124111342053/the-new-dragon-petting-zoo-of-night-vale-it) suggesting that Violet be part of the new Night Vale Petting Zoo.

…Violet is a person who already lacks true autonomy due to being trapped in a body with four other people, and now he’s stuck in jail, and his only small happiness is a hole in the wall that lets him see outside…but now people are coming to stare at him, to force-feed him, to take pictures of him without his permission. Kids throw rocks and laugh. An angel, totally nude, wanders by and mumbles, “What a waste of a perfectly good dragon.”

And Violet thinks it’s better than what he deserves, for what he did to Cecil. And he sits quietly and hates himself and takes it all. He forces himself to stick out his head every day, to be taunted, to be oohed and ahhed over, to be treated as a lesser being. After all, his situation as one of five heads is one of chance. Circumstance. There’s no one he can blame, really. But what he did to Cecil, he _chose_ to do. He did it knowingly, mindfully, and every day he realizes his guilt more and more.

And one day Cecil comes by, and he’s horrified, and he asks if there’s anything at all he can do. But all Violet says in response is, “I’m sorry.”


	30. Bone Tired

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. covinskey asked: "I need, like, five naps"

It looked like Earl meant to sit down. Instead, he fell, and Cecil caught him, easing him down onto the couch.

“You should go to bed,” Cecil murmured, bending to kiss Earl’s temple. Earl let out a noncommittal grunt that ended in a snore.

“Carlos,” Cecil said quietly, glancing up at the scientist, “I think we should tell him our idea sooner rather than later.”


	31. Shiny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. Anonymous asked: Cecil regretted touching the pulsating blob.

He really, _really_ regretted it.

But in his defense, it was shiny.

“Ooooh, babe, what’s _that_?” Carlos asked over his shoulder, voice pitched high in delight.

“Wait, Carlos, _no_ —” But it was too late, and now both scientist and radio host were trapped, watching helplessly as first their fingers and then their hands and then their whole arms disappeared into the quivering mass.


	32. Parenting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. eldertwelvecupsofcoffee asked: Cos, love, may I suggest the following sentence(s): "You know the only realization people have in life, kiddo? They're not special. You're not special. You're no luckier or more gifted than anybody else." (you can combine it all into one if you need to follow rules or whatever. :D

Anger thrilled through him like an electric charge, rooting him to the spot even as it sent twitches and spasms through tinging fingers. For a moment Cecil couldn’t breathe; then he was gasping in air, shaking, charging, waving his violently clenched fist.

“What,” he gritted, “in the _hell_ do you think you’re telling my niece?”

Steve was smiling that stupid smile, hands raised, backing away slowly in his sheepish, herd animal way. “The truth,” he said, voice maddeningly cheerful, “because I always tell my girl the truth.”


	33. Terrible Things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Trigger warnings:** Rape
> 
> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. eldertwelvecupsofcoffee asked: (okay because that last one was so painful I need more.) May I suggest, "I've done terrible things, but not to you. Never to you." please? :D

Kevin was smiling a smile that might have been adoring, but with the way his lips were unnaturally stretched over his teeth it was often impossible to tell _what_ kind of smile it was, or if it was even a smile at all.

Kevin’s hand came up, fingers brushing lightly against his face, stroking back along his cheek and curling into his hair just softly, just gently.

“Never to you,” Kevin whispered, leaning in until those dark dead eyes were all he could see. And then it was happening again—blood-slick lips, teeth, hot breath, hands…

Carlos squeezed his eyes shut and tried to hold back the trembling.


	34. Unnatural

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warning:** Immortal Cecil
> 
> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. gildedeggplant asked: Keeping with the depressing theme, here's the sad lyric I was obsessed with yesterday: "There’s only a shadow of me; in a manner of speaking I’m dead."

Carlos swallowed, dropping his eyes to his knuckles, away from Cecil’s charged gaze. It always took him too long to figure out what to say; this last time, it had taken an entire year. What could he say now?

“I love you,” he said quietly, not looking up. “I don’t care who you are, I don’t care _what_ you are, I love you.”


	35. Parentage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. eldertwelvecupsofcoffee asked: *leans more seriously in your ask box* "If you love me, then why did you stray?" :D (you are too good to me)

“I didn’t,” Aby protested, “I didn’t!”

He frowned down at her hand, which had unconsciously slid up to rest against her middle. She dropped it to her side. “I didn’t,” she repeated quietly, and he sighed and looked away.

“You did,” he said, “I know for a _fact_ you did—because I’m sterile, so there’s no way that baby’s mine.”


	36. You Never Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. typehere452 asked: For the sentence thing if you're still doing it: Well.. maybe it had been a terrible idea... Maybe.

But maybe it had been a _fantastic_ idea. I mean, you never knew, right? Cecil himself knew very little.

At any rate, it was too late to worry about it now! He shrugged, smiled, and stepped through the open door of Station Management’s office, calling out a friendly, if tentative, “Hellooooooo?”


	37. A Sheriff's Priorities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sheriff Earl from Chickadddddd's Melancholy AU has to deal with an awkward request.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. chickadddddd asked: "They all took themselves way too seriously, and not even one of those guys were an alien, time traveler, or even an esper." (For reasons ;))

“I don’t really have time to deal with you,” Earl said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

“But you’re his friend, surely you can say something to him, right?”

“Sorry,” Earl replied, shaking his head at the misguided interns, “I can’t help you.” _No one can_ , he did not add.


	38. Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warning:** There's some gross prejudice in this.
> 
> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. the-child-from-italy asked: How about "what kind of man loves like this?" lol I'm sorry

Cecil stopped, blinked, closed his mouth. For a long moment he simply stared at Earl, tried to find something friendly in his eyes. “What kind of…?” he repeated. “Earl, you—you think—you think there’s something wrong with me?”

Earl’s face was an ugly mask of horror and disgust as he spat in reply, “You can’t love more than one person at a time, you _can’t_ , I’ve only ever loved _you_.”


	39. Childhood Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cecil is not such a great friend to Earl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. eldertwelvecupsofcoffee asked: *the last prompt, ;_;* "You gave me hope but it was all a lie. I think you like to see me cry." (i love you, cos, you are too nice to me, writing all my theatre nerd stuff. <3)

Cecil smirked. “You’re a poet and don’t know it!” He shoved Earl, sending the smaller boy crashing to the sandy ground. A plume of dust flew everywhere, and Earl coughed violently as Cecil stared down at him and laughed, hands on his hips.

As his coughs finally subsided, Earl balled his fists at his sides, ignored the stinging in his eyes, and screamed, “I hate you, Cecil Palmer!”


	40. A Proposal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. eldertwelvecupsofcoffee asked: *i lied, i thought of another good one* "What about love? I never mentioned love, though the timing's bad, I know. But perhaps if i'd made it more clear that you belong right here, you wouldn't have to go."

She glared at him. “Love? How could you possibly want— _this_ ,” and she gestured at herself, at the bulge of her belly, at everything she’d been and everything she’d done and everything she was trying to escape, “this _mess_?”

Steve blinked owlishly back at her, his eyes soft. “I just do,” he said.


	41. Not Good Enough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warning:** Child abuse
> 
> This was written for the five-sentence ficlet meme. meganerddragon asked: Are you still doing ficlets? If so I have a sentence. Cecil don't ever do that again you scared me half to death!

He gazed up at her, mortified. He did not think about how the side of his face was a blaze of stinging needles, or how he might have jammed his finger trying to catch himself, or how much his rear end hurt from landing so hard, because if he thought about those things he might flinch or make a noise or gingerly touch the spots where he felt pain, and any of those actions would be a complaint, and he had no right to complain about his well-deserved punishment.

No, Cecil would be a good boy—he would be the boy she wanted him to be, the boy he should have been all along.

He pushed himself to his feet, watching as she carefully placed the cover back over the mirror. “Yes, Mama,” he said.


End file.
